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Out dining in Gent

Last Saturday we went to Ghent to meet up with some of our friends for some food and drinks. Jan had proposed this week to go dining in the Raj , a well-known Indian restaurant on the Oude Houtlei. I have walked by there so many times and it looks like a really great setting to eat. It's been there for years and most people know the restaurant so we assumed it was good. We had already tried to go in without reservation once, but it was full.

This time we had made a reservation and we got a table in a "zitput"... the table is very low near the floor and but your feet can hide in the space below the floor so that you can still sit comfortable in a western way. (well actually the floors have been raised and are full of pillows, so it's really trompe-l'oeil).

Other than the nice setting, the rest of the restaurant experience was a disappointment. The Indian food didn't taste Indian at all. It were all "sweetened" curries with hardly any spices in. The rice table was supposed to come with chapati's but after asking 3 times (and explaining that is actually on the menu and that we were supposed to get it) and waiting for a long time we were finally info that they had run out of this typical Indian bread. Huh...in an Indian restaurant at 8 Pm that has no more chapati's? Clearly they did not bake them themselves and they had simply not bought them in stock. They had never heard of Naan bread as an alternative.Ok fine, we'll just eat more rice that we could order multiple times. We needed something to eat the sauces with ! But each time it took ages to cath the attention of the waiters and every serving of rice that came was on a smaller and smaller plate!

At 9u30 they refused new people in the restaurant even though there was space again! 10 minutes later 2 people could come in for some drinks only.

After our meal it took about 30 minutes before they took our order to get some coffees and teas! And when we wanted to order some more at only 23h15, they bluntly said "Oh we are sorry, we do not serve any drinks any more, we want to close". What the hell???? fine, just give us the bill then, we are glad to go and never come back!

Today we heard from other people that they had to wait so long to get their orders taken that they simply left. And I read some more negative feedback on the internet. I don't get it that this restaurant is always busy...they must survive on first time visitors and tourists only. Pfff. What a disgrace.

Pff! Indeed. It sounds like what was a highly anticipated evening turned out to be beyond disappointment for you. That's a shame isn't it? I actually love Indian food but will put this place on my "Don't visit when in Ghent" list.Thanks for the heads up.

And thanks for the visit. I think it does take outside eyes sometimes for all of us to appreciate what we have nearby.